Middle-Class Residents in Laurel, Md., Muse What To Give Up If Taxes Push Americans Over Fiscal Cliff

LAUREL, Md. (WUSA) - What are middle-class Americans willing to give up if their taxes increase by $2,200?

The White House has taken to Twitter this week to urge them to think about what they could sacrifice to compensate for an impending tax increase of $2,200 per household. That's if Congress does not extend Bush-era tax rates.

Andrea McCarren visited a local middle-class community to ask people what they were willing to give up.

Main Street in historic Laurel is a sleepy reflection of middle America.

"Haircuts! That's where I'm on my way to now. Don't tell my barber that," said one resident.

Indeed, there's a barber shop, an American flag and residents who are fed up.

*The middle class, we've been paying, we've been paying, we've been paying," said a man named Paul. "We only have the necessities. We don't have luxury."

If faced with an extra 22-hundred dollars in taxes to pay next year, most residents told us there's little place, if any, to cut their current household budgets.

"I live by my means. I don't live outside of my means. Everything that's in my life is a necessity," said Laurel resident. Teshombae Harvell.

"I guess I won't be getting my nails done, and hair done and some of us may not even buy a new vehicle," said Sheilla Woodson.

"I make $25 an hour but at the same time I'm still living from check to check," Harvell said.

Laurel's middle class residents aren't just exasperated by the idea of increased taxes, but by the elected officials on Capitol Hill who are leaving all of them hanging off the fiscal cliff.

"They're spending too much money. That's the main problem. They don't understand. You can't spend what they don't have. Because I don't have any more to give 'em!" said resident George Boteler.

"I'm really disappointed. Because I think they should consider what we're going through.

"And we put them in office, so we expect them to do what is best for us. So they should drop their personal feelings and do the right thing," he said.